S. Adityanarayanan wins the POGO Amazing Kids Award for singers

In the running for the POGO Amazing Kids Award for singers, S. Adityanarayanan was biting his nails in nervousness. But his family was surprisingly insouciant. Because, they knew a day in advance that he had won, but were under an oath of secrecy. “POGO wanted us keep the fact a secret — most of all, from Adityanarayanan,” laughs Shankar Thiagarajan, his proud father.

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Adityanarayanan smiles in agreement. From his family breaking the pleasant news to him on November 25, to being whisked away to the Kapaleeshwarar temple by the POGO team, last week was full of high drama, and he is too overcome with emotion for words.

Shankar makes up for the boy's silence. “The credit for grooming him into a singer goes to my wife Subha. She has been taking him to music classes, often waiting while the class was on. With her grounding in music, she also doubles up as a minor trainer. His diction is impeccable because of Subha.”

And, Adityanarayanan, luckily, has had teachers (Chitraveena Ganesh, Suguna Varadachari and Tiruchi J. Venkataraman) who took a special interest in him. Encouragement from his school, Sri Sankara Senior Secondary School (Adyar) is another factor in his growth as a Carnatic singer. But it was Abaswaram Ramjhi who enabled Adityanarayanan's break into the world of sabha kutcheris. “We are a family of introverts and it was unthinkable that we would approach sabha committees and request that they let our boy sing. What we could not do for ourselves, Abaswaram Ramjhi did for us. He's been a great blessing.”

Apart from a few guidelines, Shankar (a successful software professional) has let his son make his decisions.“Of his own accord, he decided not enter light music,“ says Shankar. “Also, we don't let him perform at weddings or travel alone outside the city for concerts.”

Adityanarayanan is expected to sing in four concerts during the music season. The dates and venues for two have already been announced. For Shankar, this is a dream come true; and he is looking forward to the day when his five-year-old daughter Sahana will scale similar heights.

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